Proof that the craft beer scene is growing in Huntsville is clearly visible through the history of Salty Nut Brewery. Brent Cole and Daniel Yant along with a team of partners opened the brewery in 2013 off Evangel Circle near the UA Huntsville campus. In January 2016, the brewery relocated to its current location in Downtown Huntsville off Clinton Avenue in the spaced previously occupied by Yellowhammer Brewing. Although Salty Nut has changed the space to meet its needs, the general structure has not changed. One building serves as the taproom while another building houses the brewing and fermentation equipment. Visitors immediately walk into the seating area before finding the…
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A pint at Green Bus Brewing in Huntsville, Ala.
In downtown Huntsville just off the courthouse square in a former law office is a homebrewer’s dream come true. It’s not a homebrew store, but Green Bus Brewing. It is a homebrewer’s dream come true because that’s what happened for Green Bus’s owner Jason Sledd. In advance of my visit to Huntsville’s first nanobrewery, I happened to hear Jason’s interview with Beer Guys Radio, which shed a lot of light onto his journey from homebrewer to brewery owner (listen to it here). Back to the Rocket City and the Madison County Courthouse Square, where you find Green Bus Brewing on an idyllic tree-lined street. When visitors enter the brewery they…
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A pint at Below the Radar Brewhouse in Huntsville, Ala.
There are a lot of great places to find craft beer in Downtown Huntsville, but one of the first places to open its door was Below the Radar Brewhouse. Unlike many other breweries in town, Below the Radar (BTR) opened as a brewpub. So the space is quite different from a standard brewery, and the view of BTR from the street is quite different. When you walk in the door you are greeted at the hostess’s counter, but then immediately see the bar and a sizable seating area with high-top tables. Having been to Below the Radar a few times before, Katie and I usually sit at the bar. However,…
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Recapping the 2018 Von Brewski Festival
Over the past two years I have been to Huntsville five times with my wife to enjoy the city’s craft beer scene. During my trips to Huntsville, we’ve visited every brewery and a variety of craft beer stores and restaurants. However, last weekend Katie and I visited the Rocket City to attend the Second Annual Von Brewski Beer Festival at the Von Braun Center, which is the first time we’ve attended this event. In advance of my trip, I previewed the breweries on tap at the beer festival and the setup of the event (read it here). So instead of rehashing the breweries at the event, I’m going to focus…
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A pint at Yellowhammer Brewing in Huntsville, Ala.
When work on Campus 805 started, Yellowhammer Brewing was the first tenant to break ground and ultimately the first to open its doors. The opening is notable for many reasons. The opening meant that the redevelopment of the 13-acre Stone Middle School property into Campus 805 was becoming a reality. It also meant that Yellowhammer, which was started by a quartet of guys in 2010, had become one of the premier breweries in Huntsville, and was part of a major attraction for craft beer lovers throughout the state of Alabama and even surrounding states. Yellowhammer occupies a new building on the Campus 805 landscape with plenty of parking surrounding it. …
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Previewing the 2018 Von Brewski Festival
When people think of beer festivals, they often think of big events like Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany, or the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colo., or maybe even The Festival, which is hosted by Shelton Brothers, Inc. However, everywhere across the globe there are smaller scale, much more affordable beer festivals happening nearly every month. This coming weekend, Huntsville hosts the Second Annual Von Brewski Beer Festival at the Von Braun Center – South Hall. Conveniently located in downtown Huntsville, the Von Braun Center is easily accessible to those living in and around Huntsville, but also great for visitors because there are a handful of great hotels (like my host hotel…
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A pint at Mad Malts Brewing in Huntsville, Ala.
A trio with a fondness for beer and an irreverent nature for naming traditions, led Chris Bramon, Jeff Peck, and Tracy Mullins to start The Brew Stooges in 2013. The success the trio enjoyed was short-lived after receiving a cease-and-desist order from the C3 Entertainment, which owns the rights to the Three Stooges. However, the group kept the wacky theme alive with the re-named company: Mad Malts Brewing. The taproom is located in the building that used to house Mullins’s former business, Complete Plumbing. Due to its former life the building is located in an industrial area near the intersection of Oakwood Avenue and Meridian Street. There are some houses…
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A pint at Straight to Ale Brewing in Huntsville, Ala.
One of the earliest craft breweries to open in Huntsville was Straight to Ale Brewing. The brewery originally opened on Leeman Ferry Road in a former industrial area across from Joe W. Davis Stadium, then the home of the Southern League’s Huntsville Stars. Like many things in the Rocket City over the past few years, progress led to some notable changes. The Stars left town (and became the Biloxi Shuckers), and the craft beer scene in the city took off. Following a massive overhaul of the former Stone Middle School property just west of downtown, Straight to Ale relocated from its original facility south of downtown to the new Campus…
